How Addiction affects the family

How does addiction affect the family?  It’s no secret that addiction is absolutely crippling to those who are suffering, but what people don’t typically talk about is the families that are left to clean up the messes of their addicted loved ones. Addiction is a family dilemma. It creates rifts in the family consisting of fear for their loved ones life, lack of trust, and trauma. These struggles within the family don’t immediately go away after their loved one finds recovery. It may sometime take years for the whole family to heal.

Addiction and the one abusing –

In modern times, the typical addict has moved from the inner cities to the suburbs, and is affecting all types of families. While it’s difficult to specify where addiction begins, it’s definitely easy to identify the consequences of it. From the outside looking in, family members can see their loved ones destroying their lives. What happens is they start to blame their loved one, and then they blame themselves. As their loved one falls deeper in their decent into addiction, the loved ones begin to feel hopeless. They stay up at night worrying, and their whole lives turn into obsession over their loved one. Meanwhile, the addict doesn’t realize what’s happening to the family. If they are fortunate enough to get treatment and get sober, it takes a long time for the family to heal.

How Addiction affects the family –

Every family is different. Which means there’s no “cookie-cutter way” to handle an addiction. Very often families believe the decisions that they are making are in the best interested of their loved one. However, enabling is very common in families that struggle with an addicted loved one.  Family members may want to help by any means necessary. Maybe by sending them money, or paying their phone bill, or bailing them out of the drunk tank. While these things do seem harmless, they can potentially allow their loved one to continue using. Some of the hardest decisions will have to make in an addicted family will cause their loved ones to be angry and lash out. What’s important to remember is that there’s no correct way to handle addiction.

The families’ addiction – how does addiction affect the family?

Sometimes the loved ones of a person struggling with addiction become “addicted” to their loved one. This is most common in marriages. What happens is through years of someone abusing alcohol or drugs. Their loved on becomes addicted to helping them, addicted to saving them from themselves. An addict will always stay close to the one who enables them the most. They both become very sick. Loving an addict is one of the hardest things someone can go through. Feelings like guilt and fear overcome all else. Every decision made either makes the family member feel guilty for enabling, or hurt for telling their loved one no. Financial stress comes as well. Addiction takes a dramatic toll on the families. Money gets spent that wasn’t supposed to. Possessions may go missing. Jobs may be lost. Fighting breaks out constantly. Holidays and birthdays are painful, or maybe get past by without noticing. Anniversaries and public events become embarrassing. But as someone who loves and addict, the family member will do whatever they can to cover these things up. Addiction is a family disease. It isn’t until there are drastic consequences, or proper intervention that things begin to change.

The Addictions Coach –

At The Addictions Coach, our staff is very well trained in family recovery coaching, and family therapy. We can handle how addiction affects the family from a boots on the ground view. Family recovery coaches meet families where they’re at,and help guide them into the life that they want to live. Family Recovery Coaching works in a few different ways. Typically the one who is struggling with addiction is the one who gets most of the attention in treatment. Family recovery coaching and family therapy focus on the family unit as a whole. While the goal is to help the client achieve sobriety, the family also needs help healing. Individual sessions with the one who struggles with addiction as well as the family members will be scheduled. Family sessions will also be scheduled. While Family Recovery Coaching, and Family Therapy are different, their goals are ultimately the same; to get the client sober, and the family on the track of healing.

The Addictions Academy –

If you are intrigued about how addiction affects the family and you are interested in how to help families that are suffering from addiction, you may be interested in the training courses that we offer. The Addictions Academy offers Family Recovery Coaching training, and our trained coaches are working all over the world on the front lines against the epidemic that is addiction. Dr. Cali Estes and her renowned staff use their collective research and experience to train others to help the people who need it the most.